Now or Never
by Berkwood Court
Summary: Hermione's point of view of destroying the Hufflepuff cup, continues to the Room of Requirement kiss. My first fiction, please review!


**A/N: this is my first story, EVER. Just saying…. Keeping the A/N short and sweet. Happy reading! Would love a review or several *nudge nudge, wink wink!***

"Wait," I began uneasily, "even if we do find another Horcrux, how are we supposed to destroy it? We don't have the sword of Gryffindor anymore." Ron thought for moment before speaking.

"The bathroom!" he said.

I stared at him, trying to understand. I was feeling quite slow at the moment.

"It's over there, Ron," Ginny pointed to a door in the corner. Ron shot her an exasperated look.

"No, the _bathroom!_ Hermione, the _Chamber of Secrets!_ The basilisk!" Ron whispered. My mind whirled to keep up with him.

"The- the basilisk?" I asked, confused.

"Something to destroy the Horcrux!"

"Oh, the basilisk! But it's in the… _Chamber of Secrets!_"

"Yes, we've got to go, and we've got to go now," Ron grabbed my hand and pulled me up the stairs, leaving Ginny staring at us, bewildered. "It was in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, right? But we've got to speak Parseltongue to get in. What did Harry say to open the locket? He said he told it to open, like he did here, back in our second year. I think I remember."

"Brilliant," I whispered, jogging to keep up. A thought occurred to me.

"Ron, even if we get in, how are we supposed to get _out_?" I asked. He stopped in his tracks and thought.

"Brooms," Ron said after a moment of thinking. "We need brooms."

"Brooms," I said slowly. "Ron, you _know_ I don't fancy flying!"

"Oh right. Well we could take just one and you can ride with me." I nodded and we both blushed. Riding the same broom meant I'd have to wrap my arms around him. Our relationship, or lack-there-of, was awkward enough as it was.

"Wait. Where are we going to get the broom, then?"

"Well, we could go to the Quidditch supply room," Ron suggested. I shook my head. "We could ask around and see if anyone's got one we could borrow." I shook my head again. "How about accio?"

"It may be hard to explain to someone why we stole their broom from them, but yes, I suppose that's the easiest way to do it."

"_Accio broom!_" There was a shout around the corner and a broom flew toward us, followed by a third year Hufflepuff.

"Hey!" he shouted. "That's my broom!" He tried to pry it out of Ron's hands.

"Please," I said, "we need it, we promise we will give it back to you but, you see, we're on a mission. We're going somewhere that we need a broom to get out. We don't have one and we need to borrow this. I swear we'll give it back to you, but please, can we borrow it?" The Hufflepuff looked at us for a few seconds before speaking.

"Okay," he said, sighing. "It's okay if you don't give it back, too. I've been asking my parents to buy me a new broom, and if I can tell them that someone stole mine, they'll _have_ to get me a new one!" He turned and walked back down the hall.

I looked at Ron and shrugged. We ran toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, now with a broom. I hoped that we'd be successful.

After several minutes of running, we were standing in front of the ring of sinks, Moaning Myrtle sitting in the circular window.

"Oh, hello," she said, sounding angry. "It's been a while since I've seen _you_." Ron ignored her and I did the same. "Fine," she said with a sob and dove into her toilet. I rolled my eyes and turned to Ron.

"What are we looking for?" I asked.

"On the side of I faucet, there's a serpent," he said, crouching low and examining one sink before moving to the left. I began on the one to the right of the first. The faucet was plain, so I moved over one. There was still nothing. I moved again; this one was a bit dirty.

"Hey," I said as I found something peculiar. On both sides of the faucet, there was an "S" shape, covered in dust. "Is this it?" I wiped my finger along the shape to uncover a snake.

"Yes, Hermione, this is it!" Ron was crouching on the other side. He stood, wiping his hands on his jeans. He, too, had scrubbed an "S" clean to reveal the serpent.

"Now what do we do?" I asked, standing next to him. "Like you said, we need to speak Parseltongue to open it." He nodded and closed his eyes and concentrated. After a few moments, he stepped in front of the sink again and let out a garbled hiss.

A few seconds passed, but nothing happened. He sighed, exasperated. After a few more attempts, he kicked the sink. Still, nothing happened. _Come on,_ I prayed inwardly. He tried again and something happened: there was a loud clanking noise and the floor split open, revealing a square shaped hole. I peered into it and saw nothing but pitch black.

I lost my balance and started to fall forward. I opened my mouth to shriek but before I even completely lost my footing, Ron had me away from the hole. I looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back briefly, released me, and then cleared his throat.

"So, um, we should get going then, I guess?" Ron asked and I nodded. Stepping forward to jump down, I hesitated.

"Should we use the broom to get down there? You know, because I'm not sure how much of a fall it is," I suggested. He looked at me quizzically for a moment before straddling the broom and beckoning me over. I sat behind him and held his shoulders.

"Hermione," he began, "I'm not going to bite. You don't have a good enough grip holding me like that. Find a better way to hold on." His ears were scarlet as I wrapped my arms around his waist and hid my face in his back, blushing furiously. I felt the air rushing around me and closed my eyes. A few minutes later we were back on the ground. I opened my eyes as Ron climbed off the broom. I did the same but delayed my release on him. He noticed and turned bright red. I backed away and tried adjust to the sudden darkness.

"So, um, where is the basilisk skeleton?" I asked, looking around.

"Well, I got stuck on one side of the Chamber because a bunch of rocks fell in front of the opening, trapping me and Lockhart on one side and Harry on the other. So I guess we have to figure it out on our own." Ron looked sheepish as he looked around, too. "There's the passage that got blocked off. Let's go."

We hurried through the opening and down a long hall with large snake heads on either side, sitting on pools of water. At the end, there was an enormous assortment of bones. I sucked in a breath when I realized that these were the remains of the basilisk. My eyes widened at the thought of twelve year old Harry battling something of this size this on his own.

Ron continued walking forward. I stayed where I was and watched him crouch in front of the basilisk. He reached up and yanked out one of the fangs and turned around. Seeing that I wasn't right behind him, he stood and walked toward me.

"You do it," Ron said.

"Ron, I can't-"

"Yes, you can. I destroyed the locket, Harry the diary, Dumbledore the ring… You can do it," he said confidently. He pressed the fang into my hand.

"But Ron, what's it like?" I asked nervously. "I mean, when you destroyed the locket, did it put up a fight? I know the diary did for Harry, but is that typical?" Ron looked uncomfortable.

"Yeah, it fought back."

"What did it do?" I asked eagerly, trying to prepare myself for anything that could possibly happen.

"It, um, showed me things that I was already thinking, but it made them worse."

"Things like what?"

"Like, that you and Harry were glad that I was gone, or that my Mum preferred Harry over me. And something else…" he looked awkward.

"What?"

"It showed me you and Harry. Together… as a couple," he sighed. I stared at him, wondering if maybe that meant he liked me the way I liked him. But, no, that couldn't be. He was just worried about his two best friends. Right?

"Ron, you know I love Harry like a brother," I said.

"Yeah, that's what Harry told me. I destroyed it after-" he broke off and looked away.

"After…?" I prompted.

"After you and Harry kissed," he whispered, not looking at me. My heart swelled. Could he really have been that upset about my "being with Harry"?

"Ron," I started but trailed off. He cleared his throat and spoke.

"Where's the Horcrux? You'd better do this quickly. Harry'll be looking for us soon." I nodded and reached into my beaded bag. After a moment's searching, I produced a small golden cup, engraved with a badger.

"Okay, it will probably defend itself, so you'll need to stab it quickly. Don't listen to anything it says, just stab it." I nodded again and set the cup down. Crouching next to it, I looked up at Ron. We made eye contact and he smiled. I lifted the fang above my head and held my breath.

As I brought the fang down, the cup filled with water and overflowed. I hesitated, shocked. My moment of doubt was all that the cup needed.

"Hermione, stab it!" Ron's voice was muffled and I looked up to find his mouth full of water. He was completely covered in it: water clung to him in ropes, almost as though holding him back. He had a wild expression as he struggled against it.

"Ron!" I shouted, dropping the fang and hurrying to stand.

"No! You have to stab it!" his words bubbled through the thick layer of water.

"_Stab it and he dies,"_ a raspy voice boomed from the cup. _"Then you will never know if he truly loves you, or if he's just concerned about his best friend."_

"Don't listen to it!" Ron gurgled. "If you stab it, the water will have no power!" I looked at him, then the cup, then the fang.

"_He's lying,"_ the voice shouted. _"He would rather _die_ than deal with telling you his true feelings: he does not love you."_ Tears welled in my eyes and I looked at Ron again.

"Just stab it, Hermione!" he choked. "It's lying to you, trying to convince you to let it live! Trust me." I turned back to the cup and lifted the fang high yet again. I brought it down and the cup screamed, a black substance leaking out of where the fang punctured the metal. After a moment of this, the shrieking stopped and the substance stilled. I shivered and turned back to Ron.

He was on his knees, coughing and spluttering, free of the water. I sighed and lay on my back, staring at the grey ceiling. Finally, I sat up. Ron was now standing over me, his hand extended to help me up. I took it and got to my feet. He didn't let go of my hand. I felt heat rushing to my face as he stared at me.

I swallowed and tried to turn away, but Ron held me in place. He looked me in the eyes and slowly leaned forward. My heart beat faster as he got closer.

I threw my arms around his neck, closed my eyes, and pressed my lips to his. He responded quickly by wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me closer. We stayed like that for a while before finally breaking apart to breathe. I kept my arms around him and he did the same. I smiled shyly at him and he grinned back, pressing his lips to mine again. This kiss was short but unbelievably sweet.

When it was over, I looked him in the eyes and spoke.

"So, I guess the Horcrux really _was_ lying. About everything." He grinned. "So… this means…"

"It means that I love you and I'm sorry that it took me this long to finally do something about it," Ron said and I flushed at the words "I love you."

"I love you, too," I whispered. His grin got bigger and he pressed me into his chest. I couldn't stop smiling.

After a few moments of that, we set about collecting basilisk fangs. Once we each had a decent amount, we got back on the broom. This time, I didn't hesitate to wrap my arms around him. I still closed my eyes while we flew. The second we landed, Ron helped me off the broom and we ran out of the bathroom and down the hall.

We rounded a corner and nearly ran into Harry.

"Where the _hell_ have you been?" he shouted.

"Chamber of Secrets," said Ron

"Chamber- _what?_" Harry came to a stop in front of us.

"It was Ron, all Ron's idea!" I told him, trying to catch my breath. Ron deserved all of the credit. "Wasn't it absolutely brilliant? There we were, after you left, and I said to Ron, even if we find another one, how are we going to get rid of it? We still hadn't got rid of the cup! And then he thought of it! The basilisk!"

"What the-?"

"Something to get rid of the Horcruxes," Ron explained.

Harry looked at the fangs we were both clutching and he seemed to understand. It didn't last long

"But how did you get in? You need to speak Parseltongue!" Harry looked at Ron now.

"He did!" I whispered. "Show him, Ron!" Ron made the same noise that opened the Chamber of Secrets.

"It's what you did to open the locket," Ron told Harry, looking a bit sheepish. "I had to give it a few goes to get it right but we got there in the end."

"He was _amazing!_" I said. "Amazing!"

"So…" Harry looked a little slow, like I had been earlier. "So…"

"So we're another Horcrux down," Ron told him, pulling out the remains of the cup. I didn't realize he had grabbed it. "Hermione stabbed it. Thought she should. She hasn't had the pleasure yet."

"Genius!" Harry yelled.

"It was nothing," Ron said, though he looked more than pleased. "So what's new with you?"

At the same time, there was an explosion above us. The floor rattled and I heard a distant scream. We all looked up.

"I know what the diadem looks like, and I know where it is," Harry said quickly. "He hid it exactly where I hid my old Potions book, where everyone's been hiding stuff for centuries. He thought he was the only one to find it. Come on." He turned and sped down the hall. I glanced at Ron, grabbed his hand, and together we ran after Harry. We dropped hands before rounding the last corner and entering the room.

The Room of Requirement was empty except for Ginny, Tonks and an elderly witch. I vaguely recognized her.

"Ah, Potter," she said. Her voice made me recognize her: Neville's grandmother. "You can tell us what's going on."

"Is everyone okay?" Ginny and Tonks asked together.

"'S far as we know," said Harry. "Are there still people in the passage to the Hog's Head?"

"I was the last to come through," said Mrs. Longbottom. "I sealed it, I think it unwise to leave it open now that Aberforth has left his pub. Have you seen my grandson?"

"He's fighting," Harry told her.

"Naturally," she replied proudly. "Excuse me, I must go and assist him."

She hurried up the stairs and out of the room.

"I thought you were supposed to be with Teddy at your mother's?" Harry addressed Tonks.

"I couldn't stand not knowing-" Tonks looked agonized. "She'll look after him- have you seen Remus?"

"He was planning to lead a group of fighters into the grounds-"

Without another word, Tonks left the room.

"Ginny," said Harry, "I'm sorry, but we need you to leave too. Just for a bit. Then you can come back in."

Ginny looked pleased as she hurried up the stairs.

"And then you can come back in!" Harry called after her. _"You've got to come back in!"_

"Hang on a moment," Ron said. "We've forgotten someone!"

"Who?" I asked, bewildered.

"The house-elves, they'll all be down in the kitchen, won't they?"

"You mean we ought to get them fighting?" asked Harry. After what had happened between us in the Chamber of Secrets, I thought that maybe Ron would work harder to understand my point of view of the mistreatment of house-elves.

"No," Ron said. "I mean we ought to tell them to get out. We don't want any more Dobbies do we? We can't order them to die for us-" I couldn't take it anymore. This was Ron, my Ron, and he was talking about S.P.E.W., trying to help the house-elves.

I dropped everything and ran to him. I threw my arms around his neck, again, and kissed him. He immediately dropped the fangs he was holding and kissed me back, lifting me off the ground. I hoped he didn't mind that I was kissing him in front of Harry.

Harry was trying to say something, but I couldn't understand him. I continued to kiss Ron happily until-

"OI!" Harry shouted. "There's a war going on here!" I broke away from Ron, but like last time, kept my arms around him. He, again, did the same.

"I know mate," Ron said, staring into my eyes with a dazed expression. "So it's now or never, isn't it?" I smiled slightly.

"Never mind that, what about the Horcrux?" Harry asked. "D'you think you could just- just hold it in until we've got the diadem?"

The second he turned away, Ron pressed his lips to mine once more. We were both flushed when he pulled away.

"Yeah- right- sorry-" Ron sounded appropriately flustered as we gathered our fangs.

**A/N: So…? Did you like it? Love it? Hate it? Keep in mind, this is my first ever fan fiction. I had very little inspiration; I just crossed the book and the movie and added my imagination. I'd love to hear your opinions whether they're positive or negative. Please review!**


End file.
